Christmas in Pottersville
by Debwood-1999
Summary: When Bray, his partner, and his sister-in-law are stranded in a small Missouri town before Christmas, they must rely on the kindness of strangers. Some characters are borrowed from the movies It's a Wonderful Life and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Rated T to be safe.


**NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR; Whelp, this one came out of nowhere, after I watched **_**It's A Wonderful Life.**_** I'd consider this the first chapter, let me know if you would like me to continue it! I'll work on **_**Sacrifices **_**early next year. I hit a wall on that one, and I need to hammer a few things out.**

**Here's some background. This is obviously AU. Bray and Dean are a couple. Anna is Bray's brother-in-law (she's Abigail's sister). Jay (Christian) and Luke Harper are a couple as well. **

**DISCLAIMERS; NOT MY CHARACTERS (except for Anna and the Pollards)! They are the property of WWE. Mary Hatch, Joan Bailey, the kids, and Nick appear courtesy of **_**It's A Wonderful Life. **_**Eddie, Catherine, Rocky and Ruby Sue appear courtesy of **_**National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation,**_** which is my favorite Christmas movie. The description of Pottersville is from the salon dot com website. Just google **_**All Hail Pottersville**_**, and you should find it. Credit to author Gary Kamiya for the blurb that Anna reads on her phone.**

**Guest reviews, regardless of how good they are, WILL BE REMOVED, SIGHT UNSEEN. Not sorry, BTW. If you do have issue with my work, please make sure you have an FFDN account that I can PM you with.**

**Now, without further adieu…**

_**Christmas in Pottersville**_

_**By Debwood-1999**_

_**Chapter One**_

"I can't believe you bought my foster brother a drone for Christmas!" Anna Hollenbeck-Wallace exclaimed as she and her passengers rumbled across the Missouri countryside in her short-bed Ford truck. A pile of packages and luggage lay in the enclosed truck bed.

Dean poked his head between the two seats in front (he was sitting in the back). "What's wrong with a drone?"

"It's got small parts that'll break, and knowing Joey, he'll use it to spy on the neighbors."

"Anna, he loved it," Bray assured her. Anna had a fierce protective streak when it came to her foster brother. "Boyd assured me that he'll watch and make sure that Joey doesn't do anything dangerous or illegal with it. You worry about him too much."

Anna sighed in defeat and fixed her eyes on the road ahead. She, Bray and Dean were on their way home after an early Christmas in Springfield with her foster parents. It had been a fun-filled week, with Boyd and Emilyn treating Anna and her "siblings" like they were part of the family. Now, the three of them were heading back to their home in Louisiana to celebrate with Jay and Luke. So far, they were making great time, and hopefully, they'd be back in Crowley by morning.

That was all about to change, however.

Just as the truck passed a road sign, the engine suddenly sputtered and died.

"What the …?" Anna threw the truck into neutral. "The truck. It just stopped!"

Bray looked like he'd take the steering wheel if necessary. "Can you get to the shoulder?"

"I think so." Anna managed to nurse her truck to the side of the road and then threw it into park. "I can't believe this!" she exclaimed, throwing her head into her hands. "Of all the lousy luck." She reached towards the center console. "At least my phone's fully charged, and it has reception. Where are we?" A pause, while Anna turned her phone on. "Okay, we're in Pottersville."

Dean asked the obvious question. "How can you tell?"

"My phone has GPS. And the last sign we passed said, _Pottersville 3 miles._ Gimme a few minutes, and I'll call a tow truck…"

A tow truck with a flatbed arrived fifteen minutes later. A big guy with a red beard and buzz cut who called himself Murph hooked up Anna's disabled truck. It was a cramped ride in the cab of the tow truck, but Bray, Anna and Dean managed for the few short minutes it took Murph to haul the truck into town. As they rolled into Pottersville proper, they saw a sign that read:

_**Pottersville, Missouri**_

_**Population: 18,000**_

_**A Great Place to Visit... A Great Place to Live**_

"Sucks that your vehicle broke down," Murph said, sympathetically, as his tow truck cruised down what looked like the main drag of town. "Where are you guys headed?"

"Well, we were headed back home," Bray answered.

"Where's home?"

Anna chimed in. "Louisiana. We live a half-hour east of Lafayette. Small town called Crowley."

"You're a ways from home, then." Murphy swung his tow truck into the parking lot of a large warehouse looking building. A big sign on the side read, _Ughetti Auto Repair: We Do Great Work._ "We're here. And don't you worry. Nino's a good guy. He'll help you..."

Nino Ughetti had a trimmed goatee and dark hair sleeked back into a ponytail. He wore a blue coverall covered with grease spots. He was a swarthy, handsome-looking man who would look equally at home on top of a bike as he would tinkering around underneath a car.

"So, uhhmnm, Mr. Ughetti—" Bray started.

"Call me Nino," he grinned. "Everyone else does."

"Nino, then. I appreciate you going out of your way to help us. Can I take you aside for a moment, though?"

"Let me get this truck looked at, and I'll tell you all what's going on with it. Shouldn't take me more than a half-hour. In the meantime, I have a Keurig machine with single serve coffee and tea. Just help yourself."

Bray chuckled as Anna made a beeline for the Keurig machine in the lobby. "Ooh, Gingerbread coffee!" he heard her say, before he followed Nino outside.

"Gingerbread coffee?"

Anna glared at Dean before she grabbed a paper cup and prepared her beverage. "Hey, it's Christmas. What do you expect?"

Dean shook his head at the K-cups that were laid out for waiting customers. "Gingerbread, Eggnog, French Toast, Candy Cane? Why can't I just have a decent cup of regular, black, take-the-rust-off-a-nail coffee?"

Hot beverage in hand, Anna sat down on a loveseat across from the coffee machine. "You don't know what you're missing, Dean. Would it hurt to expand your horizons a little?"

"Would it hurt to expand _your _horizons a little?" Dean fired back. "When we get home, I'll make you scrambled eggs for breakfast."

"You're not gonna put jalapeños in them, are you?"

"Well, uhm... "

"Nuh-uh, then!" Anna made a face before she took a large sip of her coffee. "I'm not eating scrambled eggs with jalapeños."

"Says the girl who drinks flavored coffee and eats Greek yogurt mixed with strawberry jam and Cheerios."

"Set, point and match, Dean." Another sip, and then Anna set her cup down on a nearby table. "But I'm still not eating jalapeños."

Bray lumbered into the lobby. "It's a losing fight, Dean. She doesn't eat jalapeños unless they're chopped up or cooked beyond recognition." He noticed Anna fiddling with her smartphone. "So, what are you looking at?"

"I'm looking at the Pottersville Chamber of Commerce website." Anna held up her phone. "It says, _Downtown Pottersville offers a rich variety of nightlife and entertainment. There is something for every taste and every budget. Bowling and billiards sharpen hand-eye coordination and encourage friendly competition. Nightclubs and bars promote camaraderie. Prize fights and old-fashioned burlesque shows provide weary citizens with much-needed catharsis. And a pawn shop that's been featured on the History Channel makes it possible for those temporarily short on funds to participate in the full range of the community's activities."_

"Pawn shop, huh?" Dean tipped his head in interest.

"Imperial Pawn. It's the one we saw on _Midwest Pawn Stars."_

"There's worse places we could be stranded in, right?" Bray shrugged.

Nino appeared in the waiting room. "Please tell us it's good news," Anna said.

"Well, good news first. Your truck's fixable. The ECM's burned out and it just needs replaced."

Anna cocked an eyebrow. "ECM?"

"Engine Control Module. It's also known as an electronic brain. It's basically an on-board computer in your truck. It controls startup, idle, things like that. When it goes out like yours did, the biggest symptom is the engine will crank, but it won't turn over. Once it's replaced, then you shouldn't have any more problems."

"How much will it set me back?"

"It'll be about a hundred fifty for the ECM, plus labor, it'll set you back about three-fifty, four-hundred tops."

"Good to know it's not a catastrophe. Well, what's the bad news?"

"I can order the part, but it'll take a few days for it to arrive. Since your truck's a '93, it's not readily available. And with it being so close to Christmas, I'm short-handed, and I have several cars ahead of yours. The earliest I can get you and your brothers on your way is the day after Christmas."

Anna was about to say something, but Bray nudged her gently in the ribs. The look in his eyes said, _let me do the talking. _"Go ahead and get it done," the big guy said. "We'll figure something out."

"Will do." Nino pulled a business card out of a pocket of his coveralls. "Here's my phone number," he said, handing Anna the printed card. "If you have any questions, don't hesitate to call me."

"Thanks." Anna gazed worriedly at the neat printing. "How are we gonna get home?"

"We could rent a car-" Dean suggested, before Anna cut him off.

"Good luck with that. Rental places have nothing available. I was on the phone while Nino was checking on my truck. I'm afraid we may be stuck here a while."

"What about Boyd and Emilyn?"

"Emilyn has to work tomorrow. Boyd has to be back on the road. They'd be going out of their way to get us."

"Where's the nearest motel?" Bray asked. "We can bunk there for a few days."

"I can tell you they're booked pretty solid," Nino said. After catching the disappointed looks on everyone's faces, he added, "What I can do is call a friend of mine. She rents a boarding house, and I think she's got a few rooms available. Gimme five minutes, and I'll call her up. And by the way, Pottersville is known as the Poor Man's Branson. Couldn't have picked a better town to be stuck in. You should consider yourselves lucky."

"Well, there goes our Christmas," Bray sighed, as Nino ducked into an office to make his phone call. "I'll have to call Jay and Luke and break the bad news."

"Bray, answer me this," Anna said. "Why'd Nino call you my brother?"

"I'm your brother. Your brother-in-law. I married Abigail, didn't I?"

"Well, yeah."

"So we're related by marriage."

"Fair enough," Anna shrugged. "So what did you say to him when you followed him outside?"

"Well, I just told him that you're my sister, and that I look out for you. Then I said that if he tried to cheat you out of any money, then he'd be picking whatever teeth that I didn't slam down his throat up off the floor."

Anna gasped. "Bray! Why would you threaten him like that?"

"I couldn't let you get suckered into paying for repairs you didn't need. Especially this time of year."

Nino poked his head through the doorway. "Okay, just got off the phone with my friend. She's gonna have someone come and get you. Now, would it be okay if I moved your stuff out of the truck, or would you rather do that yourselves?"

"Let's wait until our ride gets here. Then you can help us."

An older model dark blue Suburban came roaring into the parking lot fifteen minutes later. Dean gazed out the window. "I guess our ride's here."

The driver hopped out and breezed into the garage. A few words were exchanged before she stepped into the lobby. She was of average height, with dark curls that spilled past her shoulders and coffee-brown eyes that were set behind a pair of square framed glasses. She wore a purple coat over leggings and an oversized sweater. Her expression was open and friendly. "Hi, Nino said you needed a place to stay!" she announced.

Bray was the first one to greet her, with Dean and Anna following suit. "If you have a couple of rooms to share. We don't wanna impose on you too much."

"No trouble at all. I'd expect someone to do the same for me if I were in your predicament." The young woman stuck out a small hand with clean, close-trimmed fingernails. "Mary Hatch. And you're…"

"Bray Wyatt." Bray shook Mary's hand, and was surprised at how strong her grip was. "This is Dean, my partner, and my sister-in-law, Anna."

"Well, it's great to meet you guys. I'll help put your stuff in the back of my SUV."

The Suburban rumbled into the driveway of a two-storied Victorian house that was spectacular looking once upon a time. Now it just looked its age. Not a Handyman's Special by any stretch, but a fresh coat of paint and some work on the trim and windows would work wonders.

"Welcome to _Chateau Du Bailey,"_ Mary announced, throwing the Suburban into park. "AKA, Bailey Boarding House. Head up to the front porch and ring the bell."

Bray's eyes widened as he saw what was parked in the driveway. "Am I seeing things, or is that…."

"Yeah. It's a Super Sport Wagon," Anna sighed. "I don't think I've seen the Antarctic blue color before. That's gorgeous."

"I wonder if it has a CB radio and Rally Fun Pack," Dean thought out loud.

The front door swung open and a middle-aged woman stepped out onto the porch. She wore a maroon colored cardigan over a blue and white flowered blouse and faded jeans. Her dark brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Her face looked harsh and tired. A look of steely suspicion lay in her eyes.

"Well… Look what the cat dragged in," she said, as a form of greeting."

Dean, Bray and Anna looked at each other sheepishly before glancing down at the porch and then meeting eyes with the woman at the door.

Bray was the first one to speak. "You're Ms. Bailey, I presume?"

"Who wants to know?"

"Well, Nino said you have some rooms available. My partner, my sister-in-law and I are all stranded here. Anna's truck broke down and Nino said it would take a few days to get in to fix."

Ms. Bailey folded her arms across her chest. "Nino?"

"Nino Ughetti. Owns _Ughetti Auto Repair: We Do Great Work._ He phoned you, didn't he, and Mary brought us over. In fact, she's unloading our stuff right now. "

Ms. Bailey's eyes were dark and hard and flinty. "I don't take in strangers unless they're sent here by somebody I know." She paused, and then a slow smile spread across her face. Her eyes softened and lit up. "But I've known Nino since he was in grade school, and I've never known a better judge of character than him." She chuckled. "I'm just busting your chops. Come on in. And make sure you wipe your feet."

Ms. Bailey led her guests into the house. Introductions were made, and Ms. Bailey took their coats to hang up in the coat closet. The place was cluttered, but clean, and the living room was filled with furniture that looked secondhand. A TV in the corner broadcast the evening news out of Springfield. The hardwood floor was covered with worn but vacuumed throw rugs. It was obvious that even though her house wasn't a palace, Ms. Bailey took care of it as best she could.

"We really appreciate you taking us in, Ms. Bailey-"

"Oh, call me Joan. Everyone else does. Except for the kids."

"You have kids?"

"Foster kids. I've taken care of them going on two years now. Good kids, they keep me busy. Now, I only have two rooms at the moment, and I wanna keep one open in case someone else needs a place to stay-"

"That's fine," Dean chimed in. "We'll just pull the mattress off the box spring."

Joan was about to speak, but Mary beat her to it. "It's okay, Joan. Anna can bunk with me. You still have that roll-away bed, right?"

"If you're willing to assemble it, Mary, it's in the utility closet upstairs."

"Thanks, Joan!" Mary paused, and then lowered her voice. "Don't worry about Joan. Her bark's worse than her bite. Anna, come with me. I'll help you get settled in."

That left Joan, Bray and Dean standing in the living room. Bray looked rather sheepish. "Uhhhmmm… you don't mind a couple of guys bunking here for a few days, do you? Dean and I, well… we're … "

Joan picked up on Bray's hesitancy. "Life partners. I can tell. Don't give your concerns a second thought. After all, you don't fall in love with what's between one's legs, but what's in one's head and heart. Just keep the PDA's to a minimum around the kids. And speaking of kids…" Joan reached down to pick up a little blonde haired moppet in flannel pajamas who motored past. "What are you doing out of bed, Zuzu? You're still not well yet."

"There's new people, I had to say hi!" Zuzu glanced up at the new houseguests. "Hi, Mister. Why do you have so much hair on your face?"

"Uh, it keeps my head warm?" Bray couldn't stop the blush from staining his cheeks. Dean snorted in laughter.

If she wasn't holding the little girl (who was now laughing), Joan would have facepalmed. "I'm really sorry about that, Bray. Zuzu's a character. She's getting over a bad cold and an ear infection." She paused. "Zuzu, this is Bray and Dean. They're gonna stay over for a few days while their truck's being fixed."

Zuzu flashed a charming gap-toothed grin. "Cool."

Again, Dean asked the obvious question. "How'd she get the name Zuzu?"

"Her real name is Susana, but she couldn't pronounce it," Joan explained. "She could only say Zuzu, and the nickname stuck." She paused and then walked with purpose out of the living room and down the hall. Zuzu was nestled securely in her arms. "Okay, gentlemen, I'll show you your room, and you can both get settled in…"

"A bad ECM?" Jay Reso-Harper's voice sounded tinny over Anna's smartphone. "Your truck was fine when you left. Didn't Jimmy go over it with a fine-toothed comb?"

"He did. Nino the mechanic said that sometimes an ECM will just short out without warning and go bad. Anyway, we're stuck here for a few days. The soonest Nino can install the part and get us on our way is the day after Christmas."

"Luke and I'll be happy to come and get you guys if you'd like."

"Oh, you guys don't need to do that. You'd be going way out of your way," Anna said. It was now 9:30, and Anna was now laying on the rollout bed, dressed in her pajamas, a pair of green and red plaid pants and a tank top that read, _Dear Santa, I can explain…_ on the front. "Besides, you have your own Christmas to worry about. We'll be fine."

"Are you absolutely sure?"

"Yeah. We're already settled into our rooms. Jay, we're really, really sorry about this-"

"Anna," Jay reassured her, "Don't worry about it. This wasn't your fault. These things happen. Tell you what. Luke and I will wait until you guys come back for our family get-together. The two of us will just head over to the Pollards for Christmas. Roselle gave us an open invite, so it's no big deal. Though you guys might miss out on a few goodies."

"Goodies?"

"Roselle told me that Bina's got a special holiday dessert planned."

"That girl should start her own dessert business," Anna marveled. For Thanksgiving last year, Bina had made a cinnamon apple tarte tatin, and then she'd given Anna a Chinese five-spice fruit tart for her birthday. "All she has to do is watch one of those Food Network baking competitions and BAM! She picks a dessert and it turns out perfect. She can do all the baking, and her mom can handle the business side."

"Bina's definitely full of surprises."

"Y'know what, whatever Bina's gonna bake, have her make four extra."

"We'll do that. Then when you guys get back, you can all meet Eddie and Catherine and their kids."

"Eddie and Catherine?"

"Yeah. They just moved into a new place right after Thanksgiving. They go to our church. Catherine has a job now at Walmart as a greeter. Rocky and Ruby Sue are gonna start school in January. And Eddie's working at Cajun Country Rice."

"Hey, I work there. Maybe I'll run into him."

"Good luck, he's works on the production floor. You work in the office, right?"

"Yeah, and at nights, too. We'll probably see very little of each other, then."

"Bah, you'll get to meet him and the entire Johnson clan when you guys get back."

"I guess we'll just be there in spirit. Tell everyone hello for me."

**NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR; Whelp, this is the most I've written in a few weeks. Hope you enjoyed it. Suggestions are welcome, concrit is fine, but no flames. **

**A reader had a couple of questions in her review, so I thought I'd clarify a few things;**

**Here, Abigail and Anna were removed from an abusive home, separated and placed in foster homes. Anna grew up with the Wallaces (they unofficially adopted her after she aged out of the foster system), and Abigail ran away from multiple foster homes. Bray is a retired trucker in this scenario, who met and married Abigail while he was on the road. In this reality, Abigail died after giving birth to a stillborn baby, and Anna (with foster dad Boyd's help) sought out the Wyatts shortly after Abigail's passing. Bray is bisexual, so he appreciates both genders, and both Dean and Bray had a mutual attraction.**

**REVIEWS = LOVE**


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